Wednesday, September 7, 2016

By George AnastasiaFor BigTrial.net
Ron Galati decided this afternoon to fold his cards rather than fight murder-for-hire and insurance fraud charges in Commons Pleas Court

Already serving a 22-year federal sentence for a conviction in a different murder conspiracy case, the 65-year-old South Philadelphia auto body shop owner pleaded no contest to a series of charges tied to two separate indictments pending against him.

Galati implied that he was not guilty, but said he opted to take a deal offered by the District Attorney's Office in order to "put this away and move on."

"This is the best decision," he told Judge Daniel Anders during a protracted hearing that began shortly before 10 a.m. and did not conclude until 12:45.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Galati's sentence in the two Common Pleas Court cases will run concurrently with the federal sentence he is currently serving. In addition, the District Attorney's Office agreed to drop insurance fraud charges against Galati's wife, Vicki.

Galati's son, Ron Jr., entered a guilty plea at a separate hearing to bid rigging and fraud charges tied to what authorities said was a multi-million dollar insurance fraud scam run out of Galati's American Collision body shop in South Philadelphia.

Both Galatis are to be sentenced on Dec. 9.

Assistant District Attorney Dawn Holtz laid out the cases against Galati during today's hearing. The plea deals were announced as jury selection was about to begin in the murder-for-hire case. But it took nearly two hours, including a closed door meeting between Galati and his attorney Trevan Borum, to finalize the agreement.

Galati was accused to hiring two hitmen, Ronald Walker and Alvin Matthews, to murder a rival auto body shop owner and his son. Authorities said Galati believed -- correctly as it turned out -- that Joseph Rao and his son Joseph Jr. were testifying before a grand jury in an insurance fraud probe that had targeted Galati.

Holtz said today that testimony would indicate that Galati agreed to pay Walker and Matthews $20,000 each to carry out the murders and that he wanted the two men "shot in the head."

Galati interrupted the presentation and told Anders he had never offered to pay $20,000 to have the Raos killed, adding that Joseph Rao Sr. "was the best friend you could ever have." Nevertheless, after some questioning by Anders and consultation with his lawyer, Galati agreed to the no contest plea.

He had originally offered to plead guilty, but backed away from that during the hearing.

Walker, Matthews, another Galati associate, Jerome Johnson, and the Raos were all expected to testify for the prosecution had the case gone to trial. The would have offered the story that Holtz described in her presentation, the assistant DA said.

The two hitmen and Johnson had all testified for the government in the federal prosecution of Galati in Camden two years ago. In that case, he was convicted of hiring the same hitmen to kill his then estranged daughter Tiffany's boyfriend, Andrew Tuono.

Tuono survived a shooting outside his Atlantic City home in November 2013.

At that point, authorities said, the hit on the Raos had been put on hold because their auto body shop had been closed.

Tiffany Galati, who testified for the government in the Tuono case, sat with her mother and brother during today's hearing. The young South Philadelphia row house princess has apparently reconciled with her family. She ended her relationship with Tuono shortly after the shooting.

The insurance fraud case involved more than two million dollars in what authorities said were reimbursements paid by insurance companies in a scheme devised by Galati that included fake or staged accidents and false or inflated repair bills.

The case also involved bid rigging and doctoring repair costs for city vehicles.

In all, the District Attorney's Office said, insurance companies "issued $2.3 million in connection with fraudulent claims" and Galati's company also received "over $1.8 million from the city of Philadelphia" for vehicle repair work for which his shop was not qualified.

The insurance fraud scam included staged photos taken by Galati designed to demonstrate that vehicles had been damaged.

"Galati favored deer hits, vandalism and vehicular damage from trajectory objects because each could be categorized as a non-fault accident for which the insured would not be held liable," authorities said in announcement the indictment against Galati and dozens of others in May 2014.

Many of his co-defendants were customers who went along with the scheme. Most have pleaded guilty to related charges. Among other things, authorities said witnesses told them that
Galati "stored deer blood, hair and carcasses in the back of his shop" and would stage fake photos using those items to support insurance claims.

"I live my life to cheat insurance companies," witness said Galati would exclaim, calling that his "mantra."

The fraud and murder-for-hire cases were investigated by Det. Robert DiFrancesco of the DA's Office and Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Romano of the Organized Crime Division of Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Galati has long been identified as an associate of South Philadelphia mob leaders Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, George Borgesi and Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. Authorities believe, but have never been able to prove, that Galati's autobody shop was used in 1993 to outfit a stolen van used in a notorious attempted hit on the Schuykill Expressway. Then mob boss John Stanfa was targeted in that rush hour ambush in which two men fired on Stanfa's car from portholes that had been cut into the side of a van that pulled up alongside Stanfa's vehicle.

Stanfa's son Joseph was wounded in that shooting which escalated a bloody war between factions headed by Stanfa and Merlino.

Galati has a prior insurance fraud conviction for which he served about 38 months. He was convicted of federal murder-for-hire charges in the fall of 2014.

Yea well I am Ron Galati Jr.. I never read this garbage or even bother to come on stupid ass sites like this where all of you losers really have nothing better to do then post tough talk under anonymous names. What I can do is set you all straight right now... My father was never and will never be a rat.. There is no shortage of rats in this city, but my father is not one of them. Anyone who says any different is a fucking liar and probably a rat themselves. Not one person including some jerkoff who actually said they did time with him has the right to talk about him. My Father is more stand up than anyone I know.. Second.. anyone who calls me a rat obviously doesn't know me, or is obviously extremely fucking jealous of me.. You know who you are. Is this a joke? Is my life really that interesting to you? I don't have to sit here and waste my time with you people, so I'll simply say this... Any of you jerkoffs have any thing to say about me or my family are more than welcome to come say it directly to me. I'm sure you all know where to find me. That is of course if you could pull yourself away from being anonymous. I can walk the streets with my head held up high... Can you??

Well, all I can say is karma....total karma....ron always said, "sometimes you don't have to get revenge, they do it to themselves"....that's the only thing he was right about....he has cancer, and doing 22 years, I hope he lives a long miserable life...couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Alot of people helped him in his life, and he fucked over every one of them. What defines a rat?. I do know this , if he wanted something you had, he'd do whatever it took to get it. That includes taping a conversation he'd have with you, to use it against you, he also was famous using video tape to prove his point and use it against you. Make your decision on what defines a rat.

Oh yea, too well, sorry to say. He is a scumbag. Plain and simple. And , he hurts his own kind. What I don't get is, he has the smarts, but, his greed and ignorance clouded his judgement with everything he's ever done. He didn't care what was his and what wasn't. His stupidity ultimately led to his downfall. Sounds hypocritical, but, true..how can you be so smart and dumb, all at the same time?....look at him and you'll see the answer. No boundaries

It's a shame he took the plea, would have been fun to watch his goomad Theresa testify against him, he put her in 7 staged accidents, and she the feds came down on her, it took all of 7 minutes to rat him out.....that would have been a perfect David chase movie scene....and Vicky knew all about her to....amazing

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